Tag: Sinks

Portland Trail Blazers guard Scoot Henderson hit the biggest shot of his young career Thursday night when his jumper with .1 seconds remaining lifted Rip City to a 122-120 win over the Utah Jazz at the Moda Center.

Henderson came off the bench to score 18 points with 10 assists while shooting 6 of 12 from the field.

His effort complimented that of Shaedon Sharpe and Deni Avdija during a game that almost got away from the Blazers before they came back in the fourth quarter, leading to a wild final eight minutes.

The Blazers had plenty of motivation to win this game. The Jazz dominated them 141-99 on Dec. 6 and the Blazers wanted to play well for coach Billups, who missed the game to attend his grandmother’s funeral.

Lead assistant coach Nate Bjorkgren led the Blazers in a game played evenly before the Jazz began to pull away in the third quarter.

The Jazz opened the second half with three consecutive threes and led by as much as 15 in the third quarter.

Henderson said the team did a good job of maintaining its composure.

“Nobody veered off …” he said. “We knew we had to lock in on the defensive side of the ball.”

But the Blazers pushed back. A 14-6 run to start the fourth quarter allowed Portland to eat away at Utah’s lead. Eventually, a Donovan Clingan putback of a Sharpe missed three gave the Blazers a 95-94 lead with 8:18 on the clock.

The game became wild from that point on. Utah built another lead only to see the Blazers come back to go up 109-108 on a three-point shot from Avdija with 4:24 to go.

Avdija later blocked Isaiah Collier’s shot in the lane then went the other way for a layup to put the Blazers up 113-112. After a stop, Avdija got into the lane and drew a foul on Collier while scoring. The made free throw put Portland up 116-112 with 2:28 remaining.

The Jazz tied the game at 120-120 when Lauri Markkanen, who missed the first meeting between these two teams, hit a deep three to give him 25 points on the night.

That set up the final play. Henderson appeared caught up with nowhere to go before stepping back and hitting the jumper.

The Jazz attempted an inbound pass toward the basket on their final play, but Clingan intercepted the ball at the rim to end the game.

The Blazers won the final quarter 41-32.

Sharpe scored 27 points, 12 in the fourth, on 11-of-18 shooting. Avdija also had 27 points, 14 in the fourth, to go along with eight rebounds and six assists.

Collin Sexton had 19 points and 11 assists to complement Markkanen. The Jazz shot 50% from three-point range (21 of 42). Portland made 15 of 38 from beyond the arc (39.5%) but outscored the Jazz in the paint 50-36.

“I thought we generated a lot of shots that we wanted, especially when we needed them most,” Bjorkgren said.

As for the revenge factor, it certainly existed.

“We definitely had to get a little payback,” Henderson said.

WHAT IT MEANS

The Blazers (10-20) defeating the Jazz (7-22) doesn’t mean much in terms of this team’s evolution. Utah isn’t good. But avenging that earlier loss to the Jazz certainly had meaning.

“When we’re playing like that and we’re all connected, that’s fun,” Henderson said.

BILLUPS OUT

Billups lost his grandmother, Mattie Billups, who died recently at the age of 90.

“Just sending my condolences to Chauncey and his family,” Henderson said. “That was definitely for him.”

Billups could return for Monday night’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers.

NEXT UP

The Blazers host the Dallas Mavericks (19-11) at 7 p.m. Saturday.